Brand Watch: Meet SVILU

SVILU, launched by Britt Cosgrove and Marina Polo for Spring 2013, is literally brand new. The ladies behind it are hardly amateurs though — Marina Polo attended Central Saint Martins College of Art in London and her CV includes stints at Vera Wang, Cloak and Peter Som, while Cosgrove did time at Prada and Hogan in their VIP relations departments before transitioning from PR to design via a degree from Parsons School of Design and positions at both Peter Som and Tommy Hilfiger. The collection whose name is derived from the Italian word for "development" is entirely made in the USA. The Ohio-born Cosgrove explains, "We wanted to do it in a way that was sustainable. The fabrics were all chosen for a reason." Polo, who was born in the US but raised in Paris says, "We just wanted the clothes to be really wearable, things you'd go back to even years from now. They're not about following a trend."

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The Spring ready-to-wear collection which debuted with an iPad case and bathing suit, hit the ground running with a modern, off-beat interpretation of a preppy aesthetic that's high on whimsy. "We wanted it to be a little bit unexpected, especially with the colors. We wanted them to be slightly off. It's preppy but instead of being camel, it's mustard," Cosgrove says. "We started off in the north of France and that kind of directed the prints and also the color palette. It feels like a lot of overlap with American preppy and European preppy, so it's mirroring the two sensibilities. I feel like it represents us both in a sense."

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Going from working under big name designers to pressing out on your own can be fraught, but these two are taking it in stride. "It's really fun to be doing something for yourself. I think it's about doing something that we want to do, but in a way that's a little bit different from other designers. Making sustainability a priority is important to us — it was a cool challenge and I think it helped grow the collection rather than hinder it," Cosgrove explains. So what can we look forward to? "There's always going to be a twist," Polo says.